


The Tales of Two Expanded Universes

by Eternal



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-18
Updated: 2017-02-18
Packaged: 2018-09-25 08:16:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 2,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9810950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eternal/pseuds/Eternal
Summary: A series of Expanded Universe crossover shorts focussing on various characters but especially Pellaeon to contain the plot bunnies inside my head.





	1. Chapter 1

Bespin’s librarian was an elderly man in his eightieth decade with tufts of white hair that erupted like smoke from his head. He dawdled at the entrance to the library underneath the grand ceremonial visage of General Iblis as students poured from hover car transports.

‘Professor Chronotis,’ Luke calls from across the acrylic floor causing the librarian to look up from where he had finished assisting with homework brought on a datapad.

‘What can I do for you today young man?’ The librarian pushes his thin frames further up his bony nose.

‘I was wondering what data you had on Grand Admirals.’

‘Admirals?’ The Professor asked slightly blankly. Then his face clears up somewhat. ‘You know, I _do_ remember Clare back in Cambridge saying something along those lines back in Bristol, the great Imperial Library at Constantinople had something to that effect or so and so. You wouldn't believe the books they had.’ His face then acquires a dreamy look.

He rambles on for a bit longer before Luke places a gentle hand on his tweed sleeve and gently redirects the topic to agriculture, a topic that the Professor takes up with much enthusiasm.

‘Ah yes, the Noghri race. Lovely chaps, did you know I invited them over the faculty party? Speaking of the tea, I don’t know where I put it. Not sure if it was the second or third shelf or the dimensional stabiliser…’ He says with a slightly unclear smile.

An alarmingly high pitched warbles from inside Iblis’ statue.

The Professor looks at it in dismay.

‘It’s ok,’ Luke says to comfort the startled librarian, ‘It’s nothing that Han or I can’t patch up.’


	2. Chapter 2

A new Rebellion bureaucrat was the last person that Pellaeon expected to be skulking about Mt Tantiss on Wayland. He’d clearly survived the highly ritualistic Myneyrshi, that much was certain, but how he’d managed to communicate with them, evade them or even escape C’boath’s notice was beyond them.

He was wearing white robes with rectangular black folds emblazoned down his arms. ‘Unhand me at once,’ the man demanded to the squad of imperial troops. His voice was accented with the chocolate smoothness of an aristocrat.

‘Sir we found this on him. No ID or anything.’ It was on odd firearm, white and red and small enough to be comfortably held in Pellaeon’s cupped hands.

‘Are you even listening to me?’ The stranger spluttered with a flair of indignation. ‘You are in incredible danger. The Yuuzhan-’

‘If you don’t quieten down,’ Pellaeon says firmly, ‘We’ll have to take you to C’boath and that’s the last thing anyone wants.’

That finally got a reaction from him. ‘I see.’ The stranger said, mouth grim probably anticipating some kind of Imperial interrogation.

In the morning that followed, there was no trace of the man, even the footprints he’d made had been smoothed over. Like a clockwork Pellaeon turned to the mysterious weapon that had been captured the other night and placed in the cache but that too had vanished along with one of the troopers in their party.

He made his report to the Grand Admiral later in the day. 


	3. Chapter 3

Mara should have been in Coruscant but instead she was in backwater Tatooine with the uncomfortable threat of Interdictor cruisers hovering over her head. The grubby Mos Eisley Cantina and its plethora of disreputable alien inhabitants was seemingly unable to turn up any meal that wasn’t unpleasantly rubbery.

The main cause of her woes, Benny, was busy knocking her brains out on alcohol.

‘You know the problem with finding a new star system is the lack of decent drinks.’ The woman was eying the various drinks that surrounded her with varying degrees of displeasure. Some were coloured, some appeared to have eyeballs or a homologous visual apparatus in them, some were viscous, some were plain, other glasses were tall and others were squat. ‘Want one?’

‘I don’t drink when I’m on business.’ The once Emperor’s Hand replied candidly from where she was wedged between Benny and a particularly pudgy Kitonak. The next seat over was Montasian – three eyes, five hands and playing mournful space age jazz on a harmonica.

Benny sat silently for a while, struggling with the concept. Then, she downed every one of the drinks. ‘Another round,’ she said to the nonplussed bartender and she was rewarded with another set of drinks, adding a third ring of orbit to her planet of drinks.

‘Doesn’t your employer care if you’re drinking yourself to oblivion?’ Karrde definitely wouldn’t have approved, if Mara drunk while on duty but on the other hand he wouldn’t have directly told her off either. He was circumspect like that.

Benny grunted in response. ‘I don’t think he’d notice if a Draconian came and hit him on the head at his precious private art auction. It never stops you know.’

KILL LUKE SKYWALKER. Mara maintains a smile. ‘What never stops?’

‘The stuck up manipulative asshole part.’ Benny’s eyes were angry now. ‘You can never underestimate what he’s going to do, he once levelled a planet to get his hands on priceless relic.’


	4. Chapter 4

Talon Karrde had met many people in his career. Some where just simply radiated untrustworthiness like Ferrier.

Qixotl was twice as slippery as an eel and genuinely more unpleasant with his pale eyes, strange waddle and the tendency of his eyes to fix on certain spots on random points on the ceiling almost as if he could divine the future by reading invisible. ‘Y’know, Mr K,’ he tries, ‘I’m glad you came. I was beginning to think that you wouldn’t come.’

‘Business is business,’ Karrde echoes Qixotl’s words back at him coolly and the lizard like humanoid presses a sweat stained handkerchief to his forehead.

‘Right you are, Mr K.’ Qixotl wheezes. ‘Come along, I’ll show you the goods.’ 


	5. Chapter 5

‘I am pleased to meet your acquaintance Grand Admiral. My name is Irving.’ Irving Braxiatel said earnestly to Grand Admiral Thrawn. He wore an elegant charcoal grey suit and cuffs that Pellaeon could have sworn were diamonds. A spray of electric yellow – a flower – sat in place on his lapel like a pinned butterfly.

For the second time, Pellaeon wished that he could have kicked the man out of the Sol Brisque precinct. He looked human, but something about him made him want to hide behind a ysalamiri nutrient frame even if he knew it offered no protection from a non Jedi or from Braxiatel’s cold eyes.

But Sol Brisque was neutral territory which meant no Imperial Troops to ease his doubts. Pellaeon admitted to himself that he’d have even preferred Rukh and then kicked himself. The gallery was heavily armed behind the façade of elegant water fountains, gravity modifiers and expensive GMO plants.

There was nothing more to do then clench his teeth and hope that the Grand Admiral would come to his senses and exit from this security risk whilst Thrawn pretended to be Flim impersonating himself.

Instead, the side of Thrawn’s mouth twitched in subtle amusement. ‘Welcome, Braxiatel. It seems that the rumours of your death were exaggerated and I am sure that we will be the best of friends.’

Braxiatel didn’t have fur like Fey’lya’s but his ego as good as rippled. ‘As was yours.’ He replied calmly, giving no indication as to whether or not he was offended by Thrawn’s choice of address or knew that he was talking to the genuine article. ‘What do you think about the brushwork Grand Admiral?’

They talked further about the several metre high painting and Pellaeon found himself lost in the exceedingly lost in the technical description of the colour, tone and composition. Perhaps Thrawn made several small mistakes on the subject of Impressionism and Braxiatel did not correct them, or Thrawn made no purposeful mistakes and Braxiatel acknowledged it. Pellaeon was not an expert on the subject and just like that the room was reduced to two people from a sea of unimportant bidders striving to obtain a good deal on an expensive artifact.

At the half an hour mark several droids offered refreshments on platters as they re- examined the painting of a burning city on its ornate golden frame this time in terms of value.

Pellaeon stood in his uniform and simply sweated but Thrawn showed no signs of being poisoned either from the food or through cutaneous contact.

At offset 439 there was a minor First Order incursion where one officer walked into the precinct out of curiosity then back out again which Pellaeon informed Thrawn of but it failed to catch his commanding officer’s attention.

‘The First Order is a minor and uninfluential cult.’ Was Thrawn’s explanation.

‘For now.’ Braxiatel agreed mildly, eyes locked to Thrawn’s red glowing ones. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me I have a matter to attend to. I shall see you at the auction.’

And to Pellaeon’s complete and utter surprise he left, with no overt threats, just the ghost of a smile of a man who had gotten what he wanted.

* * *

 

  
‘You weren’t especially talkative for a moment there,’ Thrawn prompted. He was fishing for input again, but this time Pellaeon could have sworn that he had also heard concern in his voice.

All of the nutrient frames that had been used to ward off C’boath’s powers were still intact on board the Chimera. It was almost as if that awful period when Pellaeon had thought Thrawn dead had never existed.

‘You were discussing the art with a fellow art critic. I didn’t have any meaningful input.’ He shrugged.

‘Braxiatel has no actual interest in art.’ The Grand Admiral said. ‘He learned all the theory from a book and regurgitated it from my sake. People are his only amusement and interest.’

A little crease appeared between Pellaeon’s eyes. ‘But the art belonged to Braxiatel’s people.’

‘A good deduction.’ A tilt of the head. ‘But an incorrect one. No art exists of his people as any existing work has been meticulously destroyed. Guess again.’

Pellaeon remembered the bureaucrat vanishing again through the night and the trooper McShane that had vanished without a trace. A person that nobody except he had remembered and the long nights of investigating documents to find that those had been scrubbed clean too.

‘The art was not produced by Braxiatel’s people but contains his people.’ He found himself saying the impossible.

A subtle widening of the skin around Thrawn’s eyes. ‘Correct, Commander, the art contains his people locked in a slice of time. Tonight, Irving Braxiatel will return to his ship and will instruct a professional thief who has subcontracted Karrde to assist in the removal of the painting.’

‘You obtained all that through observation?’ Pellaeon asked in amazement.

‘No,’ he replied shaking his head, ‘I bought that information from Karrde. But you on the other hand did. Something that I could have never done.’

And he hands Pellaeon the bracelet shaped object that he picked up from the droid and tells him to keep it since although it was broken it was a reminder of what once, what was and what would always be.


	6. Bonus Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a super Big Finish Doctor Who heavy continuation for the previous chapter specifically enormous spoilers for Gallifrey Enemy Lines. Work of fiction is complete without this chapter.

‘And so Irving secures his next Purpura Pawn. And after that I suppose the next Maximaderas, and the next war with the Deindum and the next Draconian war after that.’

Braxiatel is silent for the longest time. Through the viewscreen of the cushy transport he had somehow arranged from Thrawn, KS-159 was visible through the space. He hadn’t trusted that Thrawn hadn’t bugged the whole craft so an annoyed Narvin had been forced to give the transport several looks over, which Braxiatel claimed was Narvin’s domain thanks to Project Alpha.

‘I meant what I said before, Bernice.’

‘I saw you die.’

‘I fell through the Axis nexus point. Which means that I am not the same Braxiatel from before.’

‘Do you two ever stop squabbling like a married couple?’ Narvin scowled in his prissy tones from the cockpit. There was mud and scratches on where a Myneyrshi had pushed far too close for his wellbeing. ‘What did you give that alien warlord for the painting anyway?’

‘A Time Ring.’

There was a moment of silence when multiple jaws went slack.

‘Pretty irresponsible if you ask me.’ Another voice who had been quiet for very long time but was audibly teething at the leash.

‘I didn’t ask your opinion, Miss McShane.’ Narvin told her.

‘Whatever you say Mister Bossy Boots and you’re always the one telling me to pay attention in the academy and not to attempt to change the fixed laws of time and so and so even though I basically work for the “Celestial Intervention Agency” which has meddling in its middle name!’  
In the end, it was Braxiatel who defused the situation before it exploded. ‘I broke it the time ring before I gave it to him.’

‘Really now, you give the foremost intelligence in the universe a Time Ring and expect him not to unbreak it.’ Narvin snarled from where he was piloting. ‘Do you have any idea how stupid that is?’ And then he choked off when he realised what must have happened.

‘Romana isn’t going to like this one bit, Timelock or not.’ Ace said

‘No one liked the Watchmaker business.’ Narvin grumbled.

Benny didn’t ask what the Watchmaker business was.

Across the Collection’s artificial weather system, dawn was breaking. Braxiatel shut the lid of his pocket watch shortly after they’d cleared their credentials. 


	7. Bonus Chapter 2

The lights from the holographic projection glittered along the ceiling and the walls and much to the baby’s gurgling delight a flip of K9’s nose could change the projection from stars to galaxy and planets

‘I have never seen a droid like you,’ C3PO said. ‘What is your model?’

The ‘droid’ was in the shape of a small robot dog with rotating sensors of ears. At the sound of C3PO’s voice, K9’s head had elevated.

‘This K9 unit Mark II is not a droid,’ K9 stated. ‘K9 Mark II was built by the Doctor Master from Professor Marius Master’s blueprints from the Year 5000 possessing numerous intelligent features like the ability to commune with the APC net.’

Artoo whirred sadly. ‘Now, now R2,’ C3PO said, ‘I’m sure that it’s not as tragic as you might make it sound. There is still a chance that K9 will be reunited with their loved ones.’

‘Affirmative.’ K9 responded. ‘This unit has arranged for transport predicating on a greater than 99% probability of successful delivery.’

The top of Artoo’s dome made a 180 degrees spin before beeping shrilly. ‘Oh no,’ C3PO moaned. ‘This was a very bad idea on K9’s behalf.’

‘Affirmative.’

* * *

 

Commander Pellaeon eyed the droid dubiously. ‘You are a very strange droid.’

‘Negative, this K9 unit is not a droid. This K9 unit has recruited Commander Pellaeon’s assistance for immediate transport to the quote Shining World of the Seven System unquote also known as Gallifrey co ordinates 10-0-11-00:02 in the constellation of Kasterborous for an immediate reunion with Mistress Romana.’

‘Sir,’ an Imperial Trooper said. ‘Preparing for immediate take off.’

‘Immediate: as soon as possible or at once.’ K9 replied.

‘Please forget I mentioned it.’ Commander Pellaeon sighed.

‘Erasing memory banks concerning “it”.’

* * *

‘Back so soon, K9?’ The Doctor questioned. He’d just hung his hat on the hatstand but he still wore his lurid and long scarf.

‘Certainly, Doctor Master.’ K9 opined. His database was filled with more than 8000 different kinds of sports and almost every single one had been accessed in one instance or more in the past two months.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonus featuring K9.


End file.
